2 Kings 17

1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years.

2He did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, yet not like the kings of Israel who were before him.

3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute.

4Then the king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy in Hoshea, because he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had not sent up tribute to the king of Assyria, as year by year. So the king of Assyria confined him and bound him in prison.

5Then the king of Assyria went up throughout all the land, and he went up against Samaria and besieged it for three years.

6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and settled them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of Media.

7And this happened because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods.

8And they walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed before the sons of Israel, and in the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.

9And the sons of Israel secretly did things that were not right against Yahweh their God, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city.

10They set up for themselves pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

11There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom Yahweh had driven out before them; and they did evil things to provoke Yahweh.

12They served the idols, concerning which Yahweh had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

13Yet Yahweh warned Israel and Judah by every one of his prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law that I commanded your fathers and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

14But they would not listen; they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in Yahweh their God.

15They rejected his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers, and his testimonies with which he had warned them. They went after vanity and became vain, and after the nations that were around them, concerning whom Yahweh had commanded them not to do like them.

16And they abandoned all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made for themselves cast images, two calves, and made an Asherah, and bowed down to all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

17They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, practiced divination and interpreted omens, and sold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.

18So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and removed them from before his face; none was left except the tribe of Judah alone.

19Even Judah did not keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the statutes that Israel had made.

20So Yahweh rejected all the offspring of Israel, and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out from his presence.

21For Israel tore itself away from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam drove Israel from following Yahweh and caused them to commit a great sin.

22And the children of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam had committed; they did not turn away from them.

23until Yahweh removed Israel from before him, just as he had spoken by the hand of all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from its land to Assyria, to this day.

24Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

25And it happened, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear Yahweh; so Yahweh sent lions among them, and they were killing some of them.

26So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations that you have exiled and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land, so he has sent lions among them; and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.”

27Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Take there one of the priests whom you exiled from there, and let him go and live there, and let him teach them the custom of the god of the land.”

28Then one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and he taught them how they should fear Yahweh.

29But each nation kept making its own gods, and they set them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made, each nation in the cities where they lived.

30The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima.

31The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites were burning their sons in the fire to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim.

32They feared Yahweh, and they appointed for themselves from among all their people priests of the high places, who were serving for them in the houses of the high places.

33They feared Yahweh, but they served their own gods, according to the custom of the nations from which they had been exiled.

34To this day they act according to the former customs. They do not fear Yahweh, and they do not act according to their statutes and their ordinances, or according to the law and the commandment that Yahweh commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel.

35And Yahweh made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not bow down to them, or serve them, or sacrifice to them.”

36But Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm—you shall fear him, and to him you shall bow down, and to him you shall sacrifice.

37And the statutes and the judgments and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall keep to do all the days, and you shall not fear other gods.

38And the covenant that I made with you, you shall not forget, and you shall not fear other gods.

39But Yahweh your God you shall fear, and he will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.

40But they did not listen; instead, they kept acting according to their former custom.

41So these nations feared Yahweh, yet they were serving their carved images. Their children also, and their children's children—as their fathers did, so they are doing to this day.